Judaism doesn’t have much involvement with Latin. Its traditional religious languages are Hebrew and Aramaic, with a smidge of Greek (like “synagogue”) thrown in.
But today, two Latin words represent a huge and positive transformation in Jewish life. They are “Nostra Aetate.” They literally mean “in our time.”
But they also are the first words and the title of a document adopted as official policy in October 1965 by the Vatican, the headquarters in Rome, Italy, of worldwide Roman Catholic Christianity, the religion of an estimated 1 billion people on earth today.
And that document, also titled “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” completely changed centuries of hostile and sometimes murderous relations between Jews and Judaism and Catholics and Catholicism. It has been so significant that Jewish and Catholic communities worldwide are marking its 50th anniversary this year — including in Milwaukee, where several public events are scheduled, beginning this month, and are collectively titled “On the Road Together: 50 Years of Catholic-Jewish Relations.” (See sidebar.)
What it did
Local Jews and Catholics active in interfaith relations all declared that “Nostra Aetate” led to thoroughgoing changes. “As I began learning” about this document, said Elana Kahn-Oren, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, “I had my eyes opened again and again about how amazing [‘Nostra Aetate’] is.”
Because of it, Catholics have “changed their approach to how they deal with non-Catholics and specifically with Jews,” said Kahn-Oren, who is one of the leaders of the celebration events and a co-chair of the Catholic-Jewish Conference. Rabbi Ronald Shapiro, who recently retired from being senior rabbi at Congregation Shalom, has participated in interfaith relations work throughout his rabbinate, including in a Catholic priest-rabbi dialogue group.
He said priests have told him that older priests ordained long before “Nostra Aetate” tended to exhibit hostility to Judaism. “When the topic of Judaism came up,” he said, “there was the old belief that Jews had something to do with the crucifixion of Jesus, and that Judaism was a religion that was antithetical to Catholicism.”
“Many years after ‘Nostra Aetate,’” Shapiro continued, “and another generation had grown up, the priests said they never hear that kind of attitude any more. They don’t feel that sense of anti-Semitism. That was most impressive to me.”
Richard Lux is founding director of the Lux Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies at the Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology. For him, Catholic-Jewish relations has been “a 40-year passion of my life,” he said. “‘Nostra Aetate’ rejected 18 centuries of anti-Jewish teaching in the church,” he said. “It was a total transformation of church teaching.”
Judi Longdin is director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Concerns for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, the central organization of Catholicism in Milwaukee. She cochairs Milwaukee’s Catholic-Jewish Conference with Kahn- Oren and is also one of the leaders of the celebration. Since “Nostra Aetate” was promulgated, the Catholic Church has “guidelines for preaching and teaching about Jews and Judaism,” Longdin told The Chronicle. “And we’ve looked very carefully at [Catholic schools’] curriculum and materials in classrooms to insure they present Jews and Judaism fairly.”
Catholic priest Fr. David Cooper has been involved in Jewish-Catholic relations for some 45 years, and participated with Shapiro in the rabbi-priest dialogues. He said “Nostra Aetate” was “groundbreaking” for several reasons. “First of all, it said [Catholicism and Judaism] are related,” he told The Chronicle. “We find ourselves related to the Jewish people and we receive from them a great gift and a great tradition from which we have much to learn.” Second, “we cannot longer say that the Jewish nation and people or the ancient Israelites were responsible for the death of Jesus,” Cooper continued. “That reversed 2,000 years of animosity, hatred and fear that had built up between Jews and Christians.” Finally, in “perhaps the most important feature of ‘Nostra Aetate’” it states “that Catholics and all people of good will must work together to overcome racial and ethnic prejudices,” Cooper said. “We do not accept hatred of any people. We must reverse anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism in all of its forms and manifestations.”
How it happened
The history of Catholic-Jewish relations has been the topic of many books. Suffice to say that practically from Catholicism’s origins to “Nostra Aetate,” the church taught and preached contempt for Jews and Judaism.
It claimed Jews for all time had to suffer for the sin of killing Jesus, and asserted that Christianity had superseded Judaism, making people who held onto Judaism stubborn and degenerate. “That teaching was enunciated by the early church fathers, ecumenical councils and popes, and was enshrined in the liturgical practice and prayer of ordinary Catholics,” said Lux.
World War II and the revelations of the German Nazi genocide effort confronted many Catholics with the ultimate implications of such teachings. Lux said that French Jewish scholar and Holocaust survivor Jules Isaac went to Rome when he heard that a Vatican II council to reexamine many church issues and practices was planned, and Isaac pleaded for changes in the teachings about Jews and Judaism. He found a receptive audience in Pope John XXIII, who as a priest and Vatican ambassador to Turkey had saved many Jews by issuing forged passports and visas, Lux said.
Some input into this process came from Wisconsin. Sister Rose Thering, a Dominican nun from Racine, had done doctoral studies in how the church had presented Jews and Judaism, and she presented her findings to the Vatican. “That had a great influence,” said Lux. John XXIII is generally credited as the one who “got the ball rolling,” though he died before “Nostra Aetate” was approved. But “the pope that really took the ball and ran with it” was John Paul II, said Lux. “He took the teaching of ‘Nostra Aetate’ and expanded it even more.” John Paul II was the first pope to visit a synagogue and Israel, pray at the Western Wall and visit Israel’s Holocaust museum Yad Vashem; and he established diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Israel, Lux said.
The current pope, Francis I, has a history of friendship with the Jewish community of his native Argentina and appears likely to promote further progress in the “Nostra Aetate” direction. Among other things, he visited Israel in 2014, a little more than a year after he assumed the office.
“Pope Francis has demonstrated a real desire to engage in partnership with people across the spectrum,” said Longdin. “He’s looking at other Christians and other people of faith and all people of good will. He really wants to see a world in which people are actively engaged in work for justice.”
What next?
For all the progress, Lux said there are still two “significant issues” in Jewish-Catholic relations. One is the Holocaust. This remains important because “Christians, or those claiming to be Christians, were the perpetrators and the Jews were the victims,” Lux said. “I believe it’s more important for Christians to understand and to live differently because of the Shoah, both in their religious attitudes and their social action activities.”
The second is modern Israel, which has become “really a minefield” with the breakdown of discussions on the Israel-Palestine two-state solution, Lux said. There also remain some difference in approach to dialogue, Lux said.
“Catholics always want to talk about theology, and Jews always want to talk about social justice,” he said. “This has been like walking on eggshells for many years in order to show respect and to dialogue so that each one’s needs and desires are at least partly met.” But Longdin said that overall the two communities “have grown and matured in our relationship.” There is “more of a sense of Jews and Christians now working together” and the communities are “more future-oriented as opposed to past-oriented,” she said.
Moreover, “Catholics have become more aware of their Jewish roots, of the Jewishness of Jesus and his followers,” Longdin said. “This has ignited a lot of positive conversations between Catholics and Jews” as well as Jewish and Christian scholarship on the subject. And Kahn-Oren said, “On a practical level in Milwaukee, the Catholic community has become a really strong ally. We have really become friends. We support each other and stand up for each other. That’s a direct result of ‘Nostra Aetate.’”
Sidebar: Coming events
“On the Road Together: 50 Years of Catholic- Jewish Relations” is the overall title of these events. There is no admission charge for any of them. They are organized by the Catholic-Jewish Conference of Milwaukee in collaboration with the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University and the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, a program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
“Jewish Mysticism, ‘Nostra Aetate’ and Renewal in Judaism and Christianity,” a talk by Bruce Chilton, Ph.D., professor of religion at Bard College and a scholar of early Christianity and Judaism.
THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 7 P.M., at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, 2020 W. Brown Deer Rd.
“Pope Francis, ‘Nostra Aetate’ and Jewish- Catholic Relations,” discussed by Rabbi David Sandmel, director of interfaith affairs for the Anti- Defamation League, and Phillip A. Cunningham, Ph.D., professor of theology and director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at Saint Joseph’s University.
THURSDAY, NOV. 12, at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, 1360 N. Prospect Ave., in conjunction with the JMM’s “Jews of Argentina” exhibit.
“On the Road Together: Voices in Harmony,” a concert featuring the Jewish Community Chorale, the Archdiocesan Choir, Jewish cantors and Catholic religious music leaders.
SATURDAY, DEC. 5, 7 P.M., at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 812 N. Jackson St. The Catholic-Jewish Conference is a program of the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Concerns of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. For more information about the events, contact ZabrinaT@MilwaukeeJewish.org or Ecumenical @ArchMil.org.
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